‘Dark day for German football’
Defending World Cup champion eliminated with loss to South Korea
KAZAN, Russia — Everyone was waiting for Germany to score another late World Cup-saving goal.
It never came.
Instead, the Germans have become the fourth defending champions in the last five tournaments to be eliminated in the group stage following a 2-0 loss to South Korea on Wednesday.
The four-time champions allowed a pair of injury-time goals while knowing a 1-0 victory would have been enough to advance because of the result in the other group match.
“It’s very, very hard to put it into words,” said Germany defender Mats Hummels, a member of the team that won in Brazil four years ago. “We believed until the end today. Even when it was 0-1, I think we kept trying to turn it all around.”
Germany ended up last in Group F while Sweden and Mexico advanced to the round of 16. South Korea was also eliminated despite the victory.
It was the first time Germany has been knocked out in the first round since 1938, though the team was not allowed to enter the 1950 tournament.
“It’s a dark day for German football,” Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer said.
Even in Yekaterinburg, nearly 800 kilometres away, the Mexican fans expected Germany to A German fan, watching from Berlin, reacts after his team is eliminated from the World Cup on Wednesday. Germany was knocked out after a 2-0 loss to South Korea. score. They were still in posiinjury time, a goal that sent the tion to advance despite trailing Koreans cheering in Kazan and Sweden, but they were waiting – the Mexicans delirious in Yekatsome with tears in their eyes – for erinburg. Originally called out for Germany to do the inevitable and offside, the goal was given after ruin their chances of moving on. video review.
That’s when South Korea Son Heung-min made it 2-0 in stepped up. the sixth minute of stoppage time
Kim Young-gwon scored the after Neuer came up the field to first goal in the third minute of help his teammates outside the South Korea box. Son tapped the ball into an empty net after a long pass from Ju Se-jong.
Besides Germany this year, France in 2002, Italy in 2010 and Spain in 2014 were the previous defending champions to get eliminated in the group stage.
“We deserved to be eliminated,” Germany coach Joachim Loew said. “For us, this is a huge disappointment. But we have young players who are talented and have the potential to go forward. It happened to other nations before. We need to draw the right conclusions.”
All four teams in the group had a chance to advance in games that were being played simultaneously, but Sweden’s 3-0 lead over Mexico put Germany in prime position to move on as well – if the Germans could score against the South Koreans.
That was the problem, for Germany.
Germany ended up last in a group it expected to win. But the team never really seemed to recover from its opening 1-0 loss to Mexico.
South Korea lost its opening two matches but still entered the game with a chance to advance. It did its part by beating Germany, but Sweden’s 3-0 victory over Mexico allowed the Swedes to win the group ahead of the second-place Mexicans.
Germany had made it to the quarterfinals at the past nine World Cups, and reached at least to the semifinals at every tournament since 2002.